10 Signs You’re Suffering From Job Burnout

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Several years ago, I started a job that, for all intents and purposes, was my dream job. At least, it's what I spent four years of college and two years of internships preparing for. This was my big break, and I was not going to squander it.

I’m of the mindset that while I may not be the smartest or most talented person in the room, I’ll earn my spot at the table with my impressive work ethic. So, I got in early to my office job, stayed late, worked weekends—all the while obsessively worrying about my performance and my future.

Looking back, it’s obvious that my lifestyle wasn’t sustainable. But back then, I wore my workaholism like a badge of honor. The way I saw it, I had an awesome job and would work as hard as it took to do well.

As time went by, any semblance of a balanced life went out the window. I had no energy or desire to hang out with my friends, I was neglecting my health and I had become disillusioned with my work. There wasn't one single catalyst—it wasn't that I stopped liking the kind of work I did, generally speaking.

Instead, it was a classic case of burnout: multiple, chronic stressors over an extended period of time left me totally drained and no longer performing at my best. In a few short years, I went from bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to seriously burnt out. Here are signs you could be headed down the same path.

What Exactly Is Burnout?

As it turns out, my story isn’t uncommon; many millennial women are experiencing job burnout before they even turn 30. The American Psychological Association’s David Ballard, PsyD describes job burnout as “an extended period of time where someone experiences exhaustion and a lack of interest in things, resulting in a decline in their job performance.”

“A lot of burnout really has to do with experiencing chronic stress,” says Dr. Ballard, who is the head of the APA’s Psychologically Healthy Workplace Program. “In those situations, the demands being placed on you exceed the resources you have available to deal with the stressors.”

Left unchecked, burnout can wreak havoc on your health, happiness, relationships and job performance.In order to catch burnout and combat it early, it’s important to know what to look out for.

Dr. Ballard let us in on 10 signs you may be experiencing burnout:

1. Exhaustion

A clear sign of burnout is when you feel tired all the time. Exhaustion can be emotional, mental or physical. It’s the sense of not having any energy, of being completely spent.

2. Lack of Motivation

When you don’t feel enthusiastic about anything anymore or you no longer have that internal motivation for your work, there's a good chance you're experiencing burnout. Other ways this manifests? It may be harder to get going in the morning and more difficult to drag yourself into work every day.

3. Frustration, Cynicism and Other Negative Emotions

You may feel like what you’re doing doesn’t matter that much anymore, or you may be disillusioned with everything. You might notice that you feel more generally pessimistic than you used to. While everybody experiences some negative emotions from time to time, it’s important to know when these are becoming unusual for you.

4. Cognitive Problems

Burnout and chronic stress may interfere with your ability to pay attention or concentrate. When we're stressed, our attention narrows to focus on the negative element that we perceive as a threat. In the short term, this helps us deal with the problem at hand, Dr. Ballard says, "but our bodies and brains are designed to handle this in short bursts and then return to normal functioning. When stress becomes chronic, this narrow focus continues for a long time and we have difficulty paying attention to other things."

This "fight or flight" tunnel vision can negatively affect your ability to solve problems or make decisions. You might find that you’re more forgetful and have a harder time remembering things.

5. Slipping Job Performance

Not sure whether you're burnt out? Compare your job performance now to your performance in previous years. Because burnout tends to happen over an extended period of time, taking this long-term view might reveal whether you're in a temporary slump or experiencing more chronic burnout.

6. Interpersonal Problems at Home and at Work

This tends to play out in one of two ways: (a) You’re having more conflicts with other people, such as getting into arguments, or (b) you withdraw, talking to your coworkers and family members less. You might find that even when you’re physically there, you’re tuned out.

7. Not Taking Care of Yourself

When suffering from burnout, some people engage in unhealthy coping strategies like drinking too much, smoking, being too sedentary, eating too much junk food, not eating enough or not getting enough sleep. Self-medication is another issue and could include relying on sleeping pills to sleep, drinking more alcohol at the end of the day to de-stress or even drinking more coffee to summon up the energy to drag yourself into work in the morning.

8. Being Preoccupied With Work ... When You're Not at Work

Even though you might not be working at a given moment, if you’re expending mental energy mulling over your job, then your work is interfering with your ability to recover from the stresses of your day. In order to recover, you need time to yourself after the actual task stops ... and time when you stop thinking about that task altogether.

9. Generally Decreased Satisfaction

This is the tendency to feel less happy and satisfied with your career and with your home life. You might feel dissatisfied or even stuck when it comes to whatever is going on at home, in the community or with your social activities, Dr. Ballard says.

10. Health Problems

Over a long period of time, serious chronic stress can create real health problems like digestive issues, heart disease, depression and obesity.

And If You Are Experiencing Burnout?

Dr. Ballard let us in on what to do if you recognize the above symptoms in yourself.

To see the slides in one long list, click into the slide show and select "list view."

I wish LearnVest had published this article a few months ago, it would have saved me a lot of grief. Two weeks ago I was fired from my job, three months after being put on probation for “steadily declining work performance.” Deep down, I knew I was burned out, but I was in denial I guess. No one thing caused it, it was basically a combination of stressful events in my personal life (several family deaths, illnesses and divorces over a two-year period); the fact (which I realized on some level but I could not accept) that I should never have taken the job I was in because was totally unsuited for the work; and a non-supportive, dysfunctional work environment. Regardless, I’ve got no one to blame but myself now as I pick up the pieces and try to figure out what I am going to do with the rest of my life (and I’m not a millenial; I am in my 40s.) I should have seen the signs and taken at least some of the actions in this article, or better yet, just walked away from a war I had already lost.

Burnout can happen to anyone, in any field, at any age. In today’s hyper-competitive, hyper-capitalistic work environment, where employees have been reduced to little more than another resource to be used up and thrown away, it is probably more common than ever before. Everyone needs to be on guard against it, and take actions as described here when necessary, and also realize when it’s best to just quit and walk away rather than be forced out. In retrospect, I should have turned in my resignation the day after I was put on probation. It did not matter how much I improved my performance (and believe me I did my damnedest); my boss wanted me gone. My advice: if you end up on probation, consider it the equivalent of being told “just quit already so we don’t have to fire you,” give your notice, and walk away. You will save yourself a lot of agony, embarrassment and shame.

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